


Five and the Exploding Sports Bra

by Spina_Runner_51



Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: #5am, #fluff, F/M, Gen, No Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:21:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28093830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spina_Runner_51/pseuds/Spina_Runner_51
Summary: A thoroughly fluffy short fic from Season 2, side mission 15.No spoilers, except for the mission itself.Five is sent to meet up with a local demolitions maker, Quentin Llewellyn, to see if he would be willing to make some trades with Abel. But as she discovers, the materials he chooses to deliver his explosives definitely veer into... the surprising side.Otherwise known as: Life is too serious not to have exploding sports bras in it.
Relationships: Runner Five/Sam Yao
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	Five and the Exploding Sports Bra

This was not Five’s best day. Nor the worst—no one had died, no one been injured, Abel was still mostly intact, and it seemed there was every possibility of retrieving some very useful new weapons for Abel. But on the other hand, she was being chased by a swarm of fast zombs while carrying a bag full of explosives created by a mad inventor who seemed to care more about tagging zombies for scientific research than about her survival.

So there was that. On the other hand, some of the things he made _were_ pretty fun. Really, really insane, but fun. Exploding chopsticks? Exploding _fortune cookies_? I mean, _why_? But also, Five thought, also, she foresaw a particularly entertaining themed movie night when she got back to Abel. _If_ she got back to Abel. Which somewhat depended on whether she would be capable of outrunning the pack behind her. Or whether the mad inventor gave her any help. Unfortunately, he really was a particularly _mad_ inventor, Quentin Llewellyn, which made him hard to predict, and the zombies never got tired of sprinting. Whereas she had her limits.

“Um,” said Sam, over the radio, “Llewellyn, er… Quentin, some of those zombs are getting really close.”

“Right,” said Llewellyn. His voice, over Five's headset, was bursting with enthusiasm. “Look in the pack I gave you, Abel Runner, in that bottom pocket. The one with the Velcro. _Not_ the one with the zipper.”

Five pulled her arm out of one strap and yanked the pack around to her chest, trying very hard not to slow her stride as she did so. She rummaged, keeping one eye on the ground in front of her. Only a bit farther till she rounded the barn again…

Ah, she’d found the pocket. She opened it. Inside was… She extricated it from the pocket and stared at it, taken very much by surprise.

Janine’s voice over comms was highly interested, but not particularly shocked. “Is that—?”

“Yes!” cried Llewellyn, enthusiastically. “An exploding sports bra!”

Five held the bra out in front of her, looking up in the air. She wasn’t sure exactly where the cameras that Sam had hacked into were located, but she knew that Janine and Sam could see her on cams from somewhere. She tilted her face upwards, hoping that, wherever they were, they could see how wide and bewildered her eyes were. She had been sprinting for a little too long, she was growing tired, and this was her second mission of the day. She could feel her mind functioning at somewhat less than optimal capacity.

“An… an exploding sports bra?” asked Sam. His voice was incredulous.

“What… am I supposed to do… with this?” panted Five. She was still holding the bra out at arm’s length, which wasn’t helping her speed. “Do I have… to strip… right here… and… put it on?”

“Don’t worry, Runner Five, we can see you perfectly well on cams, you don’t have to keep holding it up like that,” said Janine in a reassuring voice.

Five dropped her arm gingerly and hefted the pack back over her shoulder with her other arm. She looked down at the bra in her hand, her legs still pumping beneath her. 

* * *

Meanwhile in the comms shack, Janine was speaking to Llewellyn over the radio with a very different tone. “I am not making our runner strap that to themselves in the field,” said Janine, sternly. She heard an odd noise from Sam beside her at the comms desk and cast a worried glance at him, then frowned. His face was drawn and he had grown very pale

“Exploding sports bras…” he said in a weak voice. “I… I just think I’m going to put my head down for a minute.”

Janine briefly considered whether that was worth addressing, and then just as rapidly decided that it wasn’t.

“Oh now, your runner doesn’t have to put it on!” crowed Llewellyn over his radio. He seemed to be having the time of his life.

“Oh, thank god,” said Sam, who was now underneath the desk.

Llewellyn chuckled triumphantly. “It’s a projectile weapon!”

There was a muffled thump from beneath the desk, followed by a weak cry of pain. Janine briefly closed her eyes and took a steadying breath. She would not look. _She would not look_.

“Like… like a slingshot?” asked Five. She was breathing harder. Janine could hear it clearly over the her speakers. Janine had Five well in view through several cams—blurry, but the picture was clear enough to show that Five was casting frequent looks at sprinters behind her. Janine knew this meant the runner was getting nervous. Looking back only slowed you down. 

“Exactly like that!” cried Llewellyn.

There was a groan from underneath the desk. Janine could not tolerate it any longer. She flicked off her mic.

“Mr. Yao!” she hissed into the wire-filled darkness below. “What are you doing under there?”

There was another muffled groan. Janine shook her head and turned her mic back on.

“Keep going, Five,” she said. “You’re doing well. We’ll have a plan in… in a moment.” Janine clicked her mic off again.

She leaned away as Sam emerged from beneath the desk and climbed back up into his chair. He was even more rumpled than before and resembled someone fighting being sick, but he managed to hold himself upright. She looked at him with narrowed eyes. He waved his hands at her, as if shooing off an overly helpful waiter.

“I’m fine, Janine,” he said. “Everything’s fine. I’m fine. I can do this.” He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. “Exploding sports bras,” he said again, as if that explained everything. Then he reached forward and flipped his mic back on. In a calm voice he said, “Mr. Llewellyn, can you explain to our runner how to use this… this weapon, please?”

“Certainly!” cried Llewellyn. He had clearly only been waiting to be asked. “You simply hold the back of the bra in your hand, pull back one cup—“

“Cup,” whispered Sam, as if in pain.

“Aim at your target, and let fly! As I’ve tested it, it can achieve a range of five hundred yards.”

“Five hundred yards!” repeated Sam, his face in his hands.

Janine leaned towards him with a very fierce look. “Mr. Yao, are you sure you’re up to—“

“Just like a slingshot, Runner Five!” said Sam loudly, very suddenly straightening. Janine leaned back again, startled. “So you don’t… you don’t have to put it on, Five. In front of us,” he said, grinning into the mic. “Which is a relief, right Janine?” He turned to her with eyes full of desperation.

“Right…” she said. “Quite a relief.” For a moment she was at a loss for words. She cleared her throat. “Well, Runner Five,” she said. “I think it’s time to kill some zombies, yes?”

On the cameras, Janine was clearly able to see Five as fumbled with the bra, getting it into what was presumably the right position, then stretched it with both arms, took aim, and let fly. There was a moment of absolute stillness-- except in the comms shack, where both Janine and Sam were looking from camera to camera, trying to find the clearest view. Several screens showed the group of zombies passing, and they couldn't be sure which was best. Janine had just a moment to think, _Ah, it must not have worked_ \--and then in one screen, that showed a dilapidated building that might have been a chicken coop, there was a sudden a blast of white. Both Janine and Sam put their hands in front of their eyes, reflexively. A split second later, over headset, there was the sound of the explosion, then a breathy cheer from Five. 

On the screens, once the brightness had dimmed, Janine could make out bits of zombies scattered over the ground, thrown there by a fireball much larger than the size of the weapon suggested.

“Wonderful work, Five!” cried Janine.

“Yes,” said Sam, in an awed voice. “I think you got all of them. Well… except for some crawlers. Oh, and a few more to your left.”

Five took aim, stretching out her arm, and fired again.

“Got them!” said Sam.

There was a silence as everyone surveyed the field.

“Can I… use it again?” asked Five.

“I’m afraid they are a single-use item, the sports bras,” said Llewellyn, helpfully. “Well, double use.”

“Double use…” was the faint reply from Sam.

Beside Janine, there was the distinct thudding sound of him dropping his forehead to the desk.


End file.
